37th in Health Care

Former Senator Tom Daschle talks turkey on health care in a recent speech:

It’s important that we’re all on the same page, that we agree what the
problem really is. Before we define the problem we have to destroy the myth. And
the myth in our country has long been that we have the best healthcare system in
the world. Why else would kings and leaders all around the world, people of
prominence come to the United States?

Well to a certain extent that is true. But for every king who may come
to the United States, there are thousands of people who leave the US to get
medical care elsewhere. They call it now medical tourism. Thousands of people
leave the United States because the quality and the cost is better in other
countries. So how do we explain, well we explain by simply stating that we have
islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity.

We are 29th in the world when it comes to infant mortality. 29th. We
are 24th in overall women’s health. We rank 31st in life expectancy. On Pine
Ridge Indian reservation the life expectancy of an Indian male is 47 years. The
same as what it is in Botswana. We rank 37th overall in outcomes. 37th. Below
Costa Rica and just above Slovenia. And I would ask how long would this country
stand for being 37th in the Olympics? We wouldn’t stand for it long.